Nice To Meet Ya, Doll
by imeantsomethinglikethat
Summary: Cece takes Jess to a bar after her break-up from Spencer, partly to help her get over him, and partly because she's sick of watching Dirty Dancing on repeat. A different take on how Nick and Jess first met.


**Okay so it's been far too long since I've written anything for here (so long in fact that I forgot my username/password and old email address and have had to make a brand new account. So anyway, I'm fully out of practice so feel free to gimme any criticism you like, it'll only help.  
Oh, and this was originally gonna be a 'M' rated fic, but like I said, I'm out of practice and when I went to write it down it was the most truly awful thing I've ever written, so sadly it's very tame.**

Anyway, none of the characters or even (sadly) Jake Johnson belong to me, everything belongs to the creators of New Girl, yadda, yadda, yadda, you know the drill. Enjoy!

**Nice To Meet Ya, Doll**

Life had fully, one hundred and ten percent, kicked her in the ass.

Exactly one week ago she'd been in a wonderful relationship with the man of her dreams (okay, so maybe not wonderful, and maybe Spencer wasn't exactly the man she'd always dreamed of, but he wasn't a thief or a murderer or anything) and now she was sad, had gained exactly four pounds in Rocky Road ice-cream weight (she didn't look bigger, but a girl could just tell these things) and she was completely alone, with the exception of Cece of course.

And speaking of Cece, she was the root cause of her main problem in life at the present moment. She was being dragged to a bar by her before-mentioned best friend, because according to her, being locked up for a full week eating her body weight in ice-cream and watching Dirty Dancing on repeat was just not healthy- although Jess had resolutely argued her case on that one, Dirty Dancing had healing capabilities God dammit, that was the one thing in life she was sure of!

Despite all her arguing and protesting though, Jess was wearing one of her prettiest dresses and was currently being dragged through the door of some bar in a part of town she very rarely went to, because Cece was under the impression that being hit on by a bunch of guys would somehow make her feel better about her current life situation- that situation being that she was in her late twenties, alone, and sleeping on her model best friends couch being judged by her skinny Russian flat mate.

'Cece please, just let me go home' she whined as her taller friend weaved her through the crowd, bringing her closer to the bar she that they could get drinks- and by God, pink wine was definitely on the menu tonight!

'Absolutely not. Jess, you need this!' was her immediate answer, causing Jess to sigh heavily.

'I know I do, I know I need to get out, but you know this isn't my scene Cece'

Jess scanned the bar, eyes falling on a group of guys playing pool in the corner, another group at the bar doing shot after shot of tequila, and a couple of guys in a nearby booth chatting animatedly, and Jess swore he heard the word 'chut-en-ney' used on several occasions. She shook her head and returned her focus to her best friend.

'I'm not good at this kind of thing Cece. You've known me my entire life, when have I, Jessica Day, ever been able to hit on guys in bars? I'm probably the only girl in the world that literally cannot even be _hit on_, I just panic when a guy comes over and start doing Judy Garland impressions and they just feel uneasy and walk away- _very _quickly!'

Cece smiled good-naturedly and turned so she was looking at her friend head-on. 'Jess, Spencer was a dick. He was the dick-iest of dicks. King of the dicks-'

Jess started to roll her eyes but Cece's hands immediately went to her shoulders.

'He wasn't good enough for you Jess, and the chances are, none of these guys in here are gonna be good enough for you, but it shouldn't stop you from having a little bit of fun,' Cece reached out to took a stray piece of hair behind Jess' ear, 'Now come on, let's go get a drink.'

She turned around and began heading to the bar again, but after a couple of steps, turned around to face Jess with a mock-serious look on her face 'Oh, and if anybody dares to make fun of your Judy Garland impression, I'll take them down!'

* * *

Exactly an hour later and Jess had almost forgotten why it was she was upset in the first place. She had lost count of the amount of pink wine she had drank (Cece had started a tab and had merely motioned to a flannel-clad bartender to 'keep 'em coming' which he definitely had) and she was starting to feel a hell of a lot more upbeat about her situation, although it probably had something to do with the amount of alcohol in her system.

'I mean, I'm a catch!' she established brightly, throwing her arms about in a wild way and almost knocking her wine into the lap of the guy sitting next to her.

Cece laughed intensely, banging her hands onto the bar in agreement, 'Yeah you are! See, that's my girl! You are wonderful, and amazing, and you make the best goddamn cookies I have ever tasted!'

'They really are good cookies!' Jess slurred.

'So good!' Cece affirmed 'And also-'

The speech she was about to drunkenly enter into about how 'Jess was her best friend in the whole of the world' was cut short by two guys approaching the bar and shouting over to the bar tender who had been serving them all night, causing her to become momentarily distracted by their conversation.

'Nick!' one of the guys was saying 'we're gonna head home, Schmitt has had one too many Watermelon liqueur shots and he's getting weird!'

'Winston, the liqueur has not gotten the better of me, I am simply-' the guy stopped speaking temporarily as he spotted Cece sitting beside him, and turned immediately to face her, a smile plastered on his face 'Well hello, beautiful brown goddess, your loveliness delights my eyes.'

Jess turned her face downwards towards the bar in an attempt to hide her giggles, although she was aware it probably wasn't at all successful. Cece had a look on her face that oozed distaste.

'Did you seriously just call me a _brown goddess_?'

The guy, clearly not unnerved by Cece's less than enthusiastic response, continued: 'I can see you looking at me, and I know what you're thinking. You're thinking 'Hey, look at that guy with his perfectly sculpted hair and his abs of steel, I bet he's always been amazing, I bet he's never felt pain, I bet he doesn't know what it's like to be in a minority group' but I'm gonna let you in on a secret. I'm Jewish,' he stopped speaking for a second and smiled lopsidedly, 'And also, I used to be really fat.'

Cece raised an eyebrow and decided there was no way she could even come up with a reply to what had just been said, and so turned round to face her friend, who was currently trying to hold back her impending laughing fit. 'Yeaahhh, so I'm gonna go to the Bathroom, Jess will you be okay here?'

Jess nodded resolutely and glanced across at the two guys. Cece's admirer was getting dragged out of the bar by his friend, who she heard state, 'Dude, that is by far the worst thing you have ever said to a girl, seriously, jar!'

'I think I'll be fine' she laughed, and watched as Cece headed towards the Bathroom before turning back to her drink, and the bartender who was now standing in front of her.

'I'm sorry about them' he said in a gruff but surprisingly warm voice, running a hand up and down the scruff on his jaw. 'We have a 'douchebag jar' back at the loft that we make him put money in when he acts like, well, himself. I'll make sure there's at least ten bucks in it when I get home.'

Jess chuckled briefly and smiled up at him 'He seems harmless' she said sincerely.

The guy nodded, picking up the open wine bottle from behind the bar and refilling her glass on instinct. 'He is harmless' he confirmed with a slight grimace 'He's just a harmless douche.'

This comment earned a real laugh from Jess, who picked up her wine glass and took a sip, feeling the liquid warm her entire body and smiling to herself (her love for pink wine really was unparalleled) 'That's very honest,' Jess stated on the guys revelation about his friend, setting her glass back down and staring back up at him.

'Yeah well, honesty is the best policy and all that bullshit' he quipped 'for example: I'm Nick, I'm a full-time bartender, I live in a loft with two other guys who I love and abhor in equal measures and most of the time I hate my life, nice to meet ya.'

Jess pursed her lips, bit back the 'nice to meet ya doll' reply that was on the tip of her tongue and decided to play along.

'I'm Jess, I just recently found out my boyfriend of six years was cheating on me, and I'm currently living on my friend's couch. And I literally mean living there, I haven't moved off there for like a week, the couch is now my home.'

Nick chuckled, picking up a glass and drying it with a cloth from the side (he had to make it look like he was doing some work, after all.)

'I wouldn't say I hated my life' Jess continued in a slightly more optimistic tone than she'd had all week, 'but I'm definitely not its biggest fan right now, it's kinda kicking me in the butt.'

'Life has a way of doing that to you' he reasoned 'I wouldn't get yourself down about it though; you seem a hell of a lot more together than I am- you'll be fine.'

Jess narrowed her eyes at his words and considered that despite all the reassurance she'd gotten off of Cece, and off her parents, it had never been put as simply as that before. _She would be fine. She was going to be fine._ She nodded knowingly and beamed up at the bartender who had just unknowingly given her the most comforting words she had heard in a while.

'Yeah' she agreed, unable to keep the smile off her face 'I guess I will be.'

* * *

Cece walked back into the room after her escape to the Bathroom and noticed her friend still perched at the bar, chatting to the flannel-clad bartender- who had apparently abandoned even pretending to do work- his cloth thrown over his shoulder and his elbows on the surface of the bar, a perpetual smile etched on his face.

She watched them for a while, studying her friends face and the way that her body was unconsciously leaning towards the man, her eyes wide and bright for the first time since the break-up. Smiling lovingly, she glanced down at the bag in her hand, glad she had brought it with her when she left, and slowly edged towards the exit of the bar before Jess could see.

She pulled out her phone when she was safely outside and typed a quick text to her friend in explanation, knowing that Jess probably wouldn't see the text until she was already gone, and feeling satisfied with what she was doing, jumped in a nearby taxi, directing the driver to take her home.

Jess might be pissed at first, sure, but Cece was a good enough of a friend to know that Jess got a look in her eyes sometimes, when she was truly comfortable, truly at ease. She'd saw it when they were kids, every time her parents pulled together once a month to give Jess one day when they could be a family again- despite the divorce- she saw it whenever she went to visit Jess at school, when she was in a classroom full of kids waiting to learn- the place she was truly in her element- and she could see it now. She knew, in the grand scale of things, that this didn't necessarily mean that this guy was her soul mate, or even that anything would come of it at all- what mattered was that she knew that look, and she knew it meant that for the first time in a week, Jess was truly happy, and if this guy was the one to put that look back her eyes, even if it was just for tonight, that was okay with her.

* * *

'You have got to be kidding me?'

'I'm not!' Jess laughed at Nick' incredulous reaction, 'he really has never owned a car, only a bike.'

'Sounds like he needs to put some money in the douchebag jar if you ask me,' Nick quipped, a natural warmth coating his voice, 'he kinda sounds like a dick,'

'He was…' Jess stopped at the point where she would usually defend him to people, saying he was just passionate, or creative, or conscious of his global footprint, and came to the conclusion that it was no longer her job to support him 'yeah he was actually.' she began to laugh 'He really was a dick. King of the dicks' She finished, mimicking Cece's earlier phrase.

'King of the dicks' Nick repeated, 'I like that, it's gotta certain ring to it.'

Jess smiled and they lapsed into a comfortable silence, before Nick's eyes seemed to narrow in thought and he stood up straight, taking his elbows off the bar, 'Hey, you're friend's been gone kind of a while, do you think she's okay?'

Jess emitted a small 'oh' brought her arm up to check her watch.

He was right, Cece had been gone almost twenty minutes and she hadn't even noticed; she'd been having such a good time. She silently cursed herself for not paying more attention and reached down below her stool for her bag, pulling out her phone and seeing a text from Cece flash on the screen. Clicking into it she read the message that Cece had sent her twenty minutes earlier:

'_You looked like you were having a good time, didn't wanna get in the way. Have a good night babe, I love you'_

Jess felt her cheeks heat up slightly and pouted as she looked back up at the man stood in front of her, who was once more unconsciously rubbing the scruff along his jaw. 'Yeah I don't think my friend's coming back' she offered as an explanation, her brow slightly furrowed.

'What, why, she okay?' he replied almost instantly. A man of few words, so it seemed.

'Yeah she had a er, work… thing' Jess squeezed out, not really willing to tell the guy she had just met about Cece's clear plans for them both for the night.

'Oh,' Nick said, clearly not fully believing her but also not wanting to push further 'Well in that case then, consider your bar tab cleared, and er…' he turned his back to her for a second, and she could see him picking up various liquors from the shelves, and when he turned back he presented her with a tall glass with some form of cocktail in it 'This drink is on me.' he finished finally, giving her the most honest smile she thought she had ever seen as he sat the drink down in front of her.

Jess beamed up at him as she placed one the straws in her mouth and drank a good quarter of the glass in one go. 'It's good,' she grinned 'Does it have a name?'

Nick seemed to think for a minute, pulling a face as he was doing so that she deemed particularly turtle-like, before finally saying 'It's called the 'Only Dicks Ride Bikes', because I think calling it 'The Jess' would be more cheese than either of us could handle right now.'

'Only dicks ride bikes' Jess repeated Nick like he had done to her earlier, nodding her head as a slight chuckle escaped her lips, 'I think I like that.'

Jess went back to her drink after that, savouring the taste of it with a content smile plastered to her face as Nick busied himself around the bar, serving the few customers that were left and clearing glasses. She hummed softly as she looked down into the orange liquid of the glass, silently noting that as much as she would pretend to be mad at Cece out of principle when she saw her, she would also have to remind herself to thank her best friend at some point.

* * *

'What do you mean you've _never_ seen Dirty Dancing?' Jess blurted out, shock apparent on her face

'I've just never seen it, why would I have, it's _Dirty Dancing_, I think that explains itself'

Jess tried not to let a horrified look cross her face at what Nick was implying with that statement 'But if you don't watch Dirty Dancing, what do you do when you've just broken up with someone?'

'I drink,' Nick deadpanned, although Jess had a feeling he was being one hundred percent serious, 'I get blinding drunk, and cry. I cry a lot.'

Jess smiled at this and Nick backtracked immediately 'It's a manly cry of course' he reasoned.

'How can crying be manly?' Jess smirked playfully at him.

'Because I do it for a long time, so while I'm crying I'm also growing a super manly beard.'

She almost spit her drink out through laughing.

* * *

'I was eighteen when I lost mine.'

'Not with prostitutes I'm hoping' Jess joked, referencing to the earlier story Nick had told her about how his Dad had tried to get him to lose his virginity.

'Not a prostitute in sight sadly' he smiled easily, 'On a towel in the woods with my High School girlfriend. She kept her bra on, and I cried afterwards.'

'Crying again, really?' she smirked, taking her last sip from the wine Nick had poured her and setting the glass back on the bar.

'Manly crying! It was in the woods, remember?' Nick protested, less concerned than she should have been that he seemed to be telling a woman he'd just met things his friends of years didn't even know, 'How about you, anyway?'

'I was twenty two,' Jess stated, brushing her hair absentmindedly out of her eyes, 'It was a guy I'd known in school, I'd went to prom with him, he ended up being a fireman that saved me from a pretty awkward situation. It was nice.'

Nick nodded in understanding and watched as Jess' neutral face broke out in to a grin again, 'And you know,' she chuckled, a hint of mockery in her voice 'Just because you were crying in the woods, doesn't make it manly, just makes it weird.'

She laughed harder as Nick made his turtle-like face for what felt like the hundredth time that night.

* * *

'Um Nick,' Jess began, her usually wide eyes narrowing as she surveyed the empty bar around her, she'd been so caught up in talking to him that she hadn't realised she was the only person left in the bar. 'When does the bar actually close? 'Cos I seem to be the only person here.'

'Closed about an hour ago actually' Nick admitted, looked down at the bar in what she thought was embarrassment. He seemed to recover reasonably quickly though, and looked back up into her doe eyes, stretched wide again. 'I was waiting for you to notice, I just wanted ya to stay.' He paused briefly before adding 'I've enjoyed talking to ya Jess, tonight's been fun.'

Jess felt her cheeks heat up slightly, but couldn't stop the grin that spread immediately across her face. 'Yeah it has,' she agreed. 'It's been really fun.'

They lapsed into silence after that, Jess twirling her hair around her fingers out of pure nervousness, her eyes flickering quickly between Nick's face and the bar.

She wanted him; that much was certain to her, she definitely wanted him. And it was strange, because if she was being honest, it was the last thing she was expecting to happen when she came into the bar earlier that night. She had only come to please Cece, to try and convince her that she wasn't a complete snivelling mess after the break-up. She was planning on having a few drinks, maybe dancing a little, maybe even talking to a few guys if it made Cece happy, and then she was going to politely say goodnight and go back to her best friends couch to watch Dirty Dancing before bed.

She didn't want to say goodnight to Nick though, and it was weird. She wasn't sure what it was about him, but she was not ready to say goodnight. Not yet.

'What do you wanna do Jess?' she heard his gruff voice ask, bringing her immediately out of her thoughts. He was feeling the same as her clearly, but he could see by the look on his face he was having the same internal battle as she was. They didn't know each other all that well; they didn't usually do this kind of thing. Except she felt like had known him longer than she had ever known Spencer. It was cheesy, and so cliché it made her head hurt, but there it was.

'What do you wanna do?' she questioned back, her eyes wide with what she didn't know was anticipation or fear.

His mouth parted slightly and she could see his breathing deepen, his thoughts so obviously conflicting in his mind. His voice was strained when he eventually spoke.

'Let me take you home, Jess.'

She couldn't stop the disappointment from filling her features. 'Oh,' she murmured almost inaudibly, 'Oh okay.'

Nick however shook his head in frustration at her response, his hand waving in the air for a second before he ran it roughly through his hair. 'No. No I mean…' he stuttered in an attempt for recovery. 'God dammit I didn't do that right.'

Jess narrowed her eyes at his interjection, tilting her head slightly to one side.

'I didn't mean _your _home Jess,' He explained with a small smile gracing his lips. 'I don't wanna take you to _your_ home. I wanna take you to mine.'

And so he did.

* * *

They both lay in bed after, and Jess could hear his laboured attempts at breathing as he ran his hands absentmindedly through her hair. As it has turned out, having sex with a bartender who you've only just met but have amazing chemistry with and actually find really attractive is good, it's very, _very_ good. It hadn't ever been like that with Spencer, not once, not even when they were first together and she felt for sure that she was head-over-heels in love with them. Even then, compared to what had just happened, sex with Spencer had been decidedly _ordinary._

She glanced over at nick and noted that his eyes were starting to flicker close, sleep clearly getting the better of him, and it occurred to her that she had never really felt about anyone the way she was feeling now. It wasn't that it was love-at-first-sight or anything; it was just that it felt right. She felt safe, she felt like he was somebody that she had known a long time- she found that she trusted him, and that was important right about now.

It was important because she knew that maybe it wouldn't be a great love story, and maybe they were slightly awkward, and he was overly gruff and she was overly cheery, and okay, so he didn't love Dirty Dancing (and she was still having a hard time getting over that) but she realised that they didn't need to be perfect, because right now her life was far from it. And whether all they had was this one night, or whether it was the start of something really great, it didn't matter, because at the moment in time, Nick was the exact thing that she needed.

'Jess,' she heard him mutter in his almost-sleeping state, 'You okay?'

She hummed contently and tucked herself further into him, happy to enjoy the moment for now at least.

'Yeah,' she smiled into his chest and repeated his earlier words back to him, now fully convinced of their truth. 'Yeah, I'm gonna be fine.'

**Fin.**


End file.
